Offshore A-Z is a digital repository of companies operating across major tax havens. Offshore A-Z exploits the inscrutability of such companies to speculate on their possible nature and intent. Each company listed on here is real, but the information surrounding these consist of both actual records, obtained by dmstfctn, and speculative images and mission statements, generated by algorithms.

Tax havens, or secrecy jurisdictions, employ laws and corporate regulations different from those of most jurisdictions, using secrecy as a prime tool. Furthermore, the agents operating offshore on behalf of clients elsewhere have been observed by dmstfctn to willfully introduce mistakes in the records held on the companies they help forming. (Offshore Investigation Vehicle)

When offshore companies are but a bundle of papers held in private storages, these practices contribute to a number of possible configurations of any given offshore company, whose records are at once factually correct and conveniently flawed.

Offshore A-Z plays with the idea that truth is not one nor static, and that it does not need to be upheld equally at all times or in all fora.

Obtaining the data

The data contained within Offshore A-Z comes from a number of sources. Prior to the Offshore Leaks, the snippets of information available on offshore companies were largely confined to the outdated online registrars kept by tax havens, as an empty gesture towards transparency. Employing data scraping techniques, dmstfctn extracted records on hundreds of thousands of companies appearing in a number of such registrars.

Yielding varying amounts of information, and naturally full of gaps - sometimes full company details and descriptions, sometimes little more than a name - the records were cross referenced with data from the ICIJ’s Offshore Leaks as well as Financial Secrecy Index scores from the Tax Justice Network, and compiled into a single searchable database.

Training the algorithms

Algorithms were then trained to fill in the gaps in information. Using keywords from the company’s records as a trigger, the algorithms associate images with each nondescript company and complete missing fields by guessing possible incorporation dates or by generating corporate mission statement via a simple neural network. The coherency and accuracy of the neural network is directly undermined by the opaque source material, or incomplete input records. Finally, companies previously named in the Offshore Leaks ( for example) are hyperlinked to the relevant entry on the ICIJ database, allowing user to investigate further.

Compiling the template

The resulting information is autonomously built into a Web 2.0 page, employing a visual grammar similar to that used by existing registrars of companies. However, under intense scrutiny, the template mealts away revealing warm hues and floating forms.

This cycle of actions is repeated for each unreleased company found in the database and publicly announced by a Twitter bot.

Zooming in

Among the companies listed on the Offshore A-Z, a few appearing to be embedded in complex offshore vehicles were further investigated, resulting in three stories focusing on the funding behind Leave.EU, the corporate tax-avoidance of Barclays and the colonial origins of HSBC.

Offshore A-Z is a project by dmstfctn.

ASHONIA LIMITED

Company Name ASHONIA LIMITED
Date of Registration 16th March 2010
Company Objective THE PRACTICE OF APPLICATION OF newergake- FOR THE CARIBBEANCE AND MEASURES (FECT) ASSIGNED CONTACTS AND DEFEND THEIR INTERESTS.
CAAUIGITATION urban planning and class.
1. PERFORM WORK ON THE ABOVE AREA; 2.DE RETAIL, AGENTUR AND TRADE IN REAL ESTATE AND GIVING ADVICE IN RELATION TO TRANSACTIONS IN REAL ESTATE; 2. BANKING OF ITS RESOURCES IN SECURITIES AS SHARES AND OTHER securities representing T, BONDS AND OTHER INTEREST-BEARING CLAIMS UNDER ANY NAME AND IN ANY FORM; 3. THE GUARANTEE AND OTHER GUARANTEES AND THE TRANSFER IN PROPERTY WHETHER OR NOT IN FIDUCIARY PROPERTY OR IN TRUST or mortgage, pledge or otherwise encumber ASSET, THE FOREGOING AS SECURITY FOR THE CREDITORS OF THE COMPANY PAYMENT AND DEBTS OF THIRD PARTIES , WHETHER OR NOT TO contraprestatie. 4. THE COMPANY IS LISTED IN PARAGRAPH 1 ACTIVITIES ONLY BE MADE IN SUCH A WAY THAT THEY DO NOT LIKE CREDIT REFERRED TO IN ARTICLE 1, PARAGRAPH 1 OF THE NATIONAL ORDINANCE CREDIT CONTROL SUBSTANCE CAN BE CONSIDERED. ALSO HAIR EXPRESSLY PROHIBITED EXCEPT FOR EXEMPTION, THE ACTS LISTED IN ARTICLE 48 OF THE NATIONAL ORDINANCE SUPERVISION TO PROVIDE CREDIT BEING; 5. TO RENDER SERVICES IN ACULIDATE TRANSACTIONS, AND BANKING OF ITS MEANS IN SECURITIES AS SHARES AND OTHER SECURITIES OF ENTITLEMENT TO SHARE AND BONDS AND OTHER INTEREST-BEARING IN CLAIMS UNDER WHAT NAME AND IN ANY FORM. D.4 Acting as a finance and mediating in THE CREATION OF FINANCING OF VARIOUS TYPES OF TRANSACTIONS, E.E.A. or mediate THE CREATION OF THE CORPORATION, AND THE GETAL SERVICE AND ADVICE IN THE FIELD OF COPY. 2. THE PROVISION OF COURIER SERVICES; D.HET PROVIDE SERVICES TO AND ORGANIZING MEETINGS, FESTIVALS AND EVENTS, PURPOSE OF PROVIDING THE NECESSARY MATERIALS, COOKING MEALS AND BUFFETS AND THE BREAKFACTURE, INCLUDING THE ENTIRE THE ABOVE-MENTIONED HERETO IN THE BROADEST SENSE OF THE WORD, INCLUDING ALSO IN THE LIGHT OF ALL THE DOG COSTS IF INTEREST TECHNICAL HEALTH AND AD FAST FOCUSED ON REPUBLIC OF CYPRUS TO ESTABLISHED COMPANY OP
Country
republic of cyprus
Financial Secrecy Index [more info] 50
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